Suze Chadwick [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the Brand Builders Lab podcast. I'm your host, Suze Chadwick, certified business and mindset coach, author and speaker. Each week we'll be talking about simple but powerful business and mindset strategies that will help you build a lean, clean and profitable business so you can learn to get out of your own way and pay yourself more. Forget average. It's time to level up. Hey, lovely. Welcome back to the Brand Builders Lab podcast. Awesome to have you here.
Suze Chadwick [00:00:29]:
Today we are talking all about building your personal brand without getting overwhelmed by the noise. Now, as somebody who has been speaking about branding and personal branding for the last 10 years, right now it feels really noisy. Every man, woman and their dog are speaking about how to build your personal brand. And I think that the clients and the community that I'm speaking to just feel like they're being bombarded with it. And so today I wanted to share with you how you can build your personal brand, but without feeling overwhelmed and how you can do it in a way that really works for you. I know that right now it feels like such a buzzword and we're hearing about it on every single platform. I want you to know is that it doesn't have to be overwhelming. And there are just a few things that you can do that can help you to create a great personal brand and a personal brand that works for you.
Suze Chadwick [00:01:27]:
Now, the one thing I just want to say is that your personal brand is really just your reputation. It's what you're known for. It's what people say about you when you're not in the room. It's about how people refer you and just being known for the thing that you want to be known for. It's just not that hard. And I think sometimes people overcomplicate it so much. So we're here to simplify it as much as possible. The first thing to decide on is deciding on your best method of communication.
Suze Chadwick [00:01:56]:
Now, you might think, and you might assume that I'm going to say video all the way, but I'm actually not. I think you've got to decide on what works best for you. And there are people that have built multimillion dollar businesses that do not do video. When I think of that, I think of Justin Welsh, who is on LinkedIn. He's built like an $8 million business and he does images and writes. That's what he does every single day on LinkedIn and has had huge success with it. And so you've really got to lean into what you think you do best. Now, if you're somebody who likes to speak like me, then things like podcasting, videoing, etc.
Suze Chadwick [00:02:35]:
Might be where you really want to learn to become more confident so that you can show up in a way that feels in flow for you. I am always going to say find your flow. When you find your flow, it makes it so much easier to show up and do the work every day. It makes it so much easier for you to show up and be able to create exactly what it is that you want to create. Now, if you're a writer, if you're somebody who's like, I love writing every day, then do that. Because if you feel like that's something that you can be consistent at and that you're good at, then that's going to help you to attract the people that you want to be attracting. Now, for me right now, it is about starting to create more video content so that I can share that across my platforms when I'm recording the podcast. And I have not been consistent with it.
Suze Chadwick [00:03:26]:
We've done it on and off, but I've not been consistent with it. And when I think about the fact that I started on YouTube and video 10 years ago and then I didn't continue, it is the one biggest regret in my business. It is one of the things that I kick myself about when I think about where my YouTube could be right now if I had just continued to record every week. But we don't want to go into regret, we just want to move forward. And so now one of the commitments that I've made to my VA and myself is that we're going to do a lot, lot more video on YouTube so that we can obviously be repurposing that everywhere else. I also have a short form video content studio called Bold Vibes Consulting where we actually take our clients and we do short form video professionally for them so that they can build libraries. And so you have to be the product of your product. You have to be the person that shows up and does what they're telling their clients to do, which is what I say all the time.
Suze Chadwick [00:04:24]:
So for me, this is something that I am really wanting to do, but it's me being in flow. So you decide what is in flow for you and then make a commitment to yourself to show up and do that every day or batch so that you can be showing up and sharing every day in a way that works for you. The second thing I want to say about not feeling overwhelmed when building your personal brand is actually not feeling like you have to catch up. Just like I was talking about YouTube, wishing I had done it for the last 10 years. Try not to put all the pressure of yourself, of coulda, woulda, shoulda, and just start from now. It's like drawing a line in the sand and saying, okay, I am going to challenge myself. I am going to commit to now learning this new skill, whether it's writing audio, video. You choose your medium and then make a commitment to it.
Suze Chadwick [00:05:21]:
So, for example, today what I've done is that I recorded a couple of videos. I went and watched. I love Vanessa Lau. She's doing a whole video series on creating videos, scripting, et cetera. And so that is something that I am doing today. I'm learning there are some great creators online who I really like, and so I'm also following them. But the one thing that I'm really conscious of, to not overwhelm myself, and this has happened in the past, is where once you start seeing those creators, now the algorithm is feeding you up the other hundred thousand people who are talking about the exact same thing and who are showing you how you can do it. And so it's really important to select the people that you want to learn from and then just focus on those, because otherwise it can get really overwhelming when you try and listen to every single person talking about the same topic.
Suze Chadwick [00:06:14]:
The third thing to focus on is creating a schedule and committing to it. And I also want to say committing to yourself. I think it's really easy to start something and then not continue it. And so really finding your groove and your mindset around it is going to be important. Now, when I started my podcast, it was really interesting because I just decided that I was going to do it every week. I knew what my motivation was for it. I knew that by creating the podcast, I was creating new content for my audience. I knew that it would help me to articulate what I was thinking, share my thought, leadership and the things that I was doing in my business.
Suze Chadwick [00:06:52]:
It also helped me to get some really great speaking gigs as well. So I knew exactly why I was doing it. And so that then helped me to be consistent because it wasn't just something that I thought, oh, I'm just going to do it and see how it goes. I thought, no, I'm going to do it. And by doing it, I knew what the outcome was that I wanted to get from it. And so when you make a decision about the way in which you build your personal brand, what is the way in which you're going to do it? Is it video, audio, written, etcetera Then really thinking about, and you might need to spend time doing it, writing down all the reasons why you have made that decision. So, for example, the reason that I have made the decision that I'm now going to be consistent on video and on YouTube is because I know that it's going to help me to grow my personal brand even more, have more content to share across platforms. And also, obviously, YouTube is not going anywhere, and it's fantastic to be able to share on here and potentially gain followers, clients, revenue, etc.
Suze Chadwick [00:07:57]:
So what's the motivation for doing it? The other thing is, is that I just know that video is a form that I love. And so leaning into my flow, leaning into what I know is going to work really well for me. So really think about, what are you going to do? What schedule are you going to commit to? So even now, as I'm creating this, I'm thinking, okay, what is my YouTube schedule going to be? What kind of processes do we now need in the business in order for me to commit to that and do it and batch and not be creating on the fly, but doing it in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming, doing it in a way that really works for me and my team, and also thinking about what else I might need to go with that. So really think about, what is the schedule, what are you committing to? What does that commitment look like? Who are you going to be accountable to? Is a really great thing to add there. So for me, it's my team, but also putting this out and saying to my podcast listeners and to my YouTube followers, this is what I'm going to do. And so I will commit to a day I need to speak to my team about what that's going to look like. And then I also need to start thinking about, do I pick one day of the month where we shoot four videos? And there are some really great creators that I love. Alex Katoni from the Copy Posse, she talks about how she shoots her videos all in one day for the month, and then they get the blogs, the scripts, et cetera.
Suze Chadwick [00:09:29]:
So, once again, pick the creators that you really like and you like the way in which they work and learn from them so that you're not starting from scratch, you're not trying to figure it out on your own with no guidance, but you can kind of pick the way that you're going to work best for yourself and your team. And the last thing that I think is worth doing when it comes to not feeling overwhelmed is to get your posse together, get others around you who are doing something similar so that you can support one another, share resources, share ideas, really support one another as well. I think that that always helps you do not feel overwhelmed when you're doing it with others who are on the same journey, on the same path as you. For me, as somebody who has been in business for a long time now, I feel like there is a whole community of very experienced business owners who are probably in their mid to late 30s and 40s and older who are now really moving onto this content creation journey and who are wanting to build their personal brand. And I know that for my clients who are experienced business owners wanting to move across to coaching, consulting and content, that it can be a real shift. It can be something that is difficult to start becoming really visible when you've not needed to be as visible in the past. And so when you are around others who are also working through the resistance of showing up and creating in a new way, that feels very exposing, and I totally get that, and I actually want to call that out, is that when we look at the younger generation, they've grown up with phones, they've grown up with videos, they've grown up absolutely putting a lot of their life online, naturally, which is not something that we really grew up doing. And so this takes breaking some beliefs.
Suze Chadwick [00:11:27]:
It takes really that resistance of knowing that you could share things and worrying about what people say or them disagreeing with you. And so if you are there, then feel free to come on this journey with me as well. And I am more than happy to support you to show up and start to learn to become a content creator as well as a business owner and to decide what your flow of content is so that you can create in a way that feels really good for you and can continues to help your business to grow. Because I think that is where the risk is, is that you don't move with the market and you don't build your personal brand and then you lose out on the opportunities that you could have had if you decided to commit and do the work that you know is required in the market that we're in now. So, so great to have you here today. If you've got any questions, let me know. Can't wait to see you again on video on the podcast very, very soon.
